Our Journey and Other Things

February 8, 2015

…But Where Is Home?

Ok, it’s been almost a week since we got back to Colorado. Man, we have been so incredibly blessed to have such a beautiful home state! Snow one day, 70 degrees and bike riding the next. Coming back to Colorado has been challenging too though. This is for two reasons: 1. Displacement 2. The Government.

Let’s talk about displacement. Many of you who read consistently, know that we moved out the day before we left for Chicago in January. What a weird way to leave. All of our stuff, (mainly our entire kitchen) is now down in Nick’s parents’ basement. Crammed, yet well organized into a single closet. That is our home right now, dismembered, put into 3’x2′ plastic tubs and stored away. When we were flying back, my heart and soul was longing for the familiar. I wanted to walk into our tiny home and bake cookies, watch a movie and sit on our very own love seat.

It had been a month of the uncomfortable and unfamiliar. I wanted home…there’s no place like home… But where was home? Don’t get me wrong, living in the basement in Fort Collins is like an oasis. And we are very thankful to have a place to stay. But we’re not quite home yet. We’re like the Israelites in the desert. We’re displaced and searching for our home. I just can’t wait to get to wherever our first international jobs are and settled down. It’s gonna be awesome to be home again.

2. The Government. This is the hardest part about being home. The day after we got back from Chicago, we were supposed to be sending our documents to South Korea so we could get our visas on time so we could actually leave the country. Well, of course, we are STILL waiting on our federal background check to send in to our recruiter. Yes folks, this could actually cost us our jobs. Last Tuesday we called and were told that our documents would be sent in 5-7 days. Yes, that’s over double the quoted time it was supposed to take to get them back bringing the total to 4 months! Bottom line: use an independent channeler as this has been the least efficient route ever.

Nick and I have both had our rants and there was much cussing and gnashing of teeth. But we both want a way to hold the government responsible for (potentially) costing us our jobs. We’ve had to tell the school that we will most likely not be able to get our papers on time as we haven’t yet been able to even send the papers. Our recruiter wanted us to drop off our passports at the Korean embassy in person to save time, and yet again, we can’t do that because the closest embassy is 3 states away.